Sunday, May 18, 2014

Training adults and youth to create and expand jobs is different strategy than the academic’s approach to graduate and then find a job.. that may not be there.

I am currently linking my Master on Adult Learning research paper with my African project to build business development Community Learning Centers. This is a unique approach that blends youth/adult learning with local commercial development. Its strategy is to train youth and adults to create new jobs and build up current local businesses.

This letter requests is a small amount of funding to develop three research documents: Preliminary Analysis, Business Plan and Launch Manual for community learning centers in Africa. The two month project can be easily integrated into another NGO facility or academic programs. There are several serious offers to do this with Somaliland University of Technology, PELUM Association of farmers in Lesotho and another in the Nigerian Delta. Ideally I would like to like to develop two sets of plans in July and August this summer in two separate countries. I am searching for a grant to build something real and not just be shelfware in a journal.

Costs of this project will vary depending the security issues of the local African site. The estimate would be under 10,000 USD for two months work. If you have a smaller grant I can alter the duration and location of the program to bring the budget down. There are places such as in Zambia and Lesotho I can stay with friends. During the Active Research period I would also be delivering community leadership training workshops on Community Development Through Digital Literacy” and youth workshops on digital storytelling. This would expand on my previous UNESCO seeded Internet portal education program “I am Africa. This is my story…” http://i-am-the-story.ning.com. Targeted locations are in Lesotho, Kenya, South Sudan, Somaliland, South Africa, Nigeria Delta, Uganda and Zambia.

This model of integrating business/agriculture development with collaborative community development in an adult learning format will be designed to be easily replicated anywhere in the world. It is based on development work I have done in the past:

Built the first profitable Technology Center in New York City

Strategic consulting for the launch of the Microsoft Certification Program

Four trips to Africa documenting the transformational learning process of mission groups

Transformational trauma curriculum development of homeless women in Bridgeport CT

Development of the UNESCO PPN seed portal “I am Africa, This is my story…”including field youth workshops and YouTube channel.

Development of the Global Learning Framework on how we learn as a global collaborative though the Internet. This work has been published international through ISTE, UN Peace Journal and Global Education Magazine.

International lecture on Adult Learning, poverty and trauma in the Global Education Conference, STEMX online. Learning Revolution Online. Presentations are available at Slideshare.

On a personal note Adult Learning in poverty presents an entirely different set of needs and problems solving skills that are not addressed in higher academic Adult Learning theorists. Poverty requires different transformational “ values based tools and methods that lean more toward the methods of UNESCOs Four Pillars of Learn to Learn, Learn to Be, Learn to Communicate and Learn to Do. This paper would address those issues.

A very brief description of this style of learning center is to imagine a safe community compound were local learning, business development and community problem solving all took place together in common rooms. This secure compound would contain small business resource shops and training facilities that all local NGOs, commercial businesses and agencies can leverage together. Attached is a copy of my CV and a sample of the Somaliland University of Technology proposal, there are other country versions. For no other reason than acquiring a fresh look at how we can help African economy scale up I would encourage you to explore the proposal, it is filled with useful ideas.

Please consider my request seriously I would be flexible in integrating my work into whatever current programs you have planned or underway.